Old firehall up for sale in Hay River

Hay River is putting the old Vale Island Fire Hall up for sale to generate revenue for the town

The Town of Hay River has a brand new fire hall in the downtown area.

But the town still has an old fire hall, built in 1970, on Vale Island. For the past several years, the old fire hall has been used mainly as a storage facility for fire department equipment.

After reviewing the situation, the town determined they had other storage space available that would meet the fire department’s needs.

“As a result, there was an opportunity to put the Vale Island fire hall up for sale to provide a source of revenue to the town,” says Judy Goucher, SAO for Hay River.

The old fire hall isn’t officially posted as for sale yet, but Goucher says they’re looking to get at least the assessed value of the building, which is about $210,000.

“If the sale proceeds at a price we’re willing to accept, the town will now have an opportunity to earn property tax on that piece of property, which we have not when it was in the town’s inventory,” Goucher says.

“So there’s an ongoing source of revenue for us as well as the revenue from the sale of the asset itself.”

Some of the old equipment, including a small trailer, will be stored in one bay of a three-bay garage that’s part of the town’s recreation warehouse.

The town also inherited some cots and blankets from the Arctic Winter Games, which will be stored as well until they are needed.

“If we ever have an emergency situation where other towns need to be evacuated into Hay River, we’ll be able to use them in gymnasiums and community halls to help house people who have been evacuated,” Goucher says.

Other things like Christmas decorations from past parade floats will be stored in seacans on the warehouse lot.

“All of the core assets of the fire department are all in the new fire hall, so this is not for fire trucks or ambulances or anything else,” she explains. “They are all housed in the new fire hall.”